I decided to keep this blog up as it does have some good information to share so enjoy.

I have another blog called BizzBeginnings which may interest you as well. There I focus on all things small business such as the integration of new technologies etc. Anything that makes things easier and would be a benefit to a small business owner. Use the details provided through BizzBeginnings should you wish to contact me. I hope to see you there!

All the best,

Sean Sweeney

Happy 2010!

Is it me or is the start of the year really busy for everyone? I haven’t had time to do anything but client related work since starting back which would be the reason why my first blog entry is being made the 3^rd week of this month. I’m doing my best here folks so bear with me.

Huh?!?

To setup what I’m going to speak about…

Last week I did a short presentation for the members of one of my weekly business networking groups. After the presentation many of the people I am in the group with came up to me and indicated that they were able to finally understand what services my company provides and that they would like me to come in to their business as soon as I could to assess their current backup processes. Huh??? I’ve been getting up for the past 6 months giving different 30 second pitches only to find out now that few people understood what the heck I was talking about??? Wow. That really forced me to think about how I’m presenting what I do and how to do it. I guess I’m taking for granted what people understand when it comes to technology. Understanding isn’t really a big deal if you have someone else doing your backups. Those aren’t the people I want to reach. I’m trying to help those who are trying to accomplish the task themselves who have little understanding regarding how to do it right so they can protect their business investment. So… just in case I have lost some people out there let’s start from scratch for this blog entry (and I mean scratch). The following is what I presented last week. Keep in mind; I usually wing it with a point form list to reference so the following is a mind dump of what I could remember.

1. 2. 3.

My presentation…

For my presentation today I would like to take this opportunity to share some backup basics that you can refer to when considering what will be included in your own backup processes.

I’m going to start by first making a statement. In most situations, and for most applications, a typical backup is not a complete copy of every file on your computer. Now there are situations where it can be. We call these particular processes ghosting, cloning or bare-metal backups. I’m going to shelve this topic for another time as it is significantly more technical and prone to more issues than a regular backup process. I am available to consult on whether that type of backup is right for you but for now, let’s stick with a regular backup processes.

So, if a backup is not a copy of all the files on your machine then what is it? To answer that, let’s looks at what really is on your computer and how we can cover our butts with replacing everything if we ever need to.

Operating Systems

The first and base thing you will find is an operating system (Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Mac OSX, Red Hat etc.). That gives you the framework to support and operate the second thing which are the software applications or programs you use on a daily basis at home or to support your business (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, MSN Messenger, Internet Explorer, Outlook, Milano for Spa’s, AutoCAD for Design, Photoshop, Illustrator, I could go on forever). This also includes external device drivers and software like printers, scanners, video cameras, cameras etc. The next thing you will find on your computer are your application preferences. These are basically settings detailing how I’ve got my software setup. For example, an engineer can spend years setting up his AutoCAD just the way he likes it. Graphic designers can have Photoshop setup a certain way to optimize their use of the software. We all work (or play) differently and have adjusted our software to work in ways that make the most sense for us. There are customization options in just about all operating systems and applications. This also includes things like bookmarks of all the important websites you use, cookies for all your automated site logins, messenger lists etc. The last thing stored on your computer is the raw data generated through using software, applications and devices. This could be a contract a lawyer would author through Word, it could be the accounting data an accountant enters into Simply Accounting, it could be the contacts we put in our contact lists, the email we receive, the scans or pictures produced by external devices like scanners or cameras. This is the meat of it all, the data specific to our business operation. And that’s basically it in a nutshell. Now, how do we backup all this stuff so that if anything ever happens we can get back up and running again with everything the way it was before?

Redundancy

Backup is all about redundancy. In the past and still today, if you have important documents or very important items you would keep them, or copies of them in a safety deposit box, out of your home or business. This protects you if you ever have an incident where they may be lost or destroyed through fire, flood and theft. Backup is no different. Multiple copies is the key.

So, to backup things like operating systems and applications we likely already have the original install discs provided via DVD or CD. In order to introduce redundancy all that needs to be done is to copy those application discs (including serial and license files) and store them safely offsite. For internet delivered software, copies will work if restore time is critical or one wouldn’t have access to the internet. If these are not issues then an application list detailing download/install links and license/serial numbers will work just fine.

Now, for personal and business critical information like application preferences and raw data. There are a lot of options available to you but first you need to identify and prioritize what it is you need to backup and how critical it is to your business operation. How long can you go without having access to that data before you start losing money and clients? How long and how much would it cost you to reproduce that data or setup your applications or systems so that they perform the way you want them to?

Business Risks

Armed with that information you can now investigate a backup process which will meet your recovery time objective. This essentially means a pre-established amount of time you can go without the data before it starts to hurt you.

Now, it is important to understand that every backup process has risks and limitations. None of them are 100% but when used together your risks are significantly decreased. Again, I’m back to redundancy. Multiple copies in different places will ensure your best chance of recovery.

Some of the options you have at your disposal for onsite and offsite storage are as follow. I highly recommend utilizing both an onsite and offsite strategy to cover all your bases and to eliminate downtime.

1. Optical Discs
2. Magnetic Tape
3. Hard Disks
4. Solid State (USB, Flash, Jump)
5. Remote Backup

For further information on any of the above options please consult a previous blog post entitled Considerations in Common Backup Processes.

I hope this blog entry shed some light on what files need to be considered when backing up your computer. If figuring out what needs to be backed up; finding a solution that meets your recovery time objective; performing the backups daily; rotating them offsite and performing tests periodically to make sure the data is recoverable; seems like a lot of work, then call me. That’s why I’m in business.

S

Apples & Oranges

Let’s start by defining RBS for those that don’t know.

Simply, remote or online backup services (RBS) offer a process to transfer electronic files to an alternate location for storage so they are available to you should you experience a business halting event that results in the loss of some or all of your in-house data.

There are many benefits to this type of service. However, the individual benefit or degree of its application is dictated by the service itself. Not all remote backup services are the same. They may all seem like it from an initial perspective but when you get right down to it you will find significant differences between them. Please use this as a guide to establish what is important to you, your organization; and make sure you select a service that fits you, the consumer. I hope you will never need to fall back on your investment but if that’s the case, you will be happy you took a little time to investigate. The last thing you need when dealing with a business halting event is to learn that what you thought was taken care of doesn’t meet the needs of your recovery plan. By then it’s too late and the costs to your business add up quickly.

Benefits and Differences

Differences

Generally, an accepted global benefit to RBS is the reduction in operating expenses required to manage and operate more traditional backup solutions. It’s more cost effective. This is of course if your company only relies on RBS to protect its data. Although I feel RBS is more advantageous and reliable from a continuity perspective than other solutions nothing is 100% effective. There are flaws in every process. My recommendation to all my clients is that they use RBS as a second level of protection for their organization. Optical or tape backup is useless when they are consumed in the same fire that destroys your physical presence and let’s face it, few “properly” transport their backups offsite on a regular basis. You’re probably asking yourself; why not just adopt manual transport offsite instead of investing in RBS? Good question. Let’s stick with saying that brings up a whole new set of risks that are out of the scope of this article. I’ll write that one next, I promise. If you can’t wait for it then give me a call and we can talk about it.

So, let’s get into the differences you should know about so you can investigate and find an RBS solution that’s right for you.

Encryption.

Encryption

This is a biggie and can be quite confusing. Some RBS providers have it, most don’t. You need encryption if you are going to store protected or critical information on somebody else’s server. Remember, no matter what they say the supplier can see your files on the other side. If they are not encrypted you could be exposed to PIPEDA violations which can result in lawsuits, fines, bad press, loss of customers or even the loss of your business.

Some RBS providers state that files are encrypted when in fact your files are sitting on their server in a readable format. What they mean is that your files are only encrypted during transfer between yourself and them. It’s exactly the same as you submitting information via a form through a secure website. You know, the web pages with the little lock in the bottom of the browser? Your online bank would have it. This type of encryption does not protect your files from being viewed by them so be careful.

There are also many different kinds of encryption. The strongest algorithm that is publically available to my knowledge and at the time of writing this is 448bit Blowfish. That’s almost twice the encryption banks use today. Online providers will use all sorts of different encryption technologies. The lower the bit rate the easier it is to crack. Be wary of providers that don’t tell you what they use as they may be using their own proprietary format. If I build my own encryption algorithm it wouldn’t be hard for me to build something in it to universally decrypt files using it. Really think about encryption as the lack of it can expose your company to tremendous risk. Especially if you don’t know the service provider you are dealing with. If you knew them you could at least get them to sign a confidentiality statement to limit your liability.

Location.

Location

Where is your data being stored? Is it in a secure data centre or is it in someone’s basement? Is it in Canada or somewhere else? Be careful when dealing with a foreign company that advertises a physical Canadian presence. Most of their offices are focused on marketing and sales while their data centre is elsewhere. You may think your data is on Canadian soil when in fact it’s being backed up to a data centre in New York. There is also rumor of proposed legislation that will limit Canadian data to Canadian storage facilities. The last thing you need to do is switch providers when you’ve already invested time and money in backing up significant amounts of data to a foreign provider.

That brings me to another point on location, how will you get your data back should you need it? When dealing with small amounts of data this doesn’t pose too much of a problem however, large amounts of data can present significant concerns. If you lose your data your likely dealing with other associated issues such as alternate locations, hardware, and software. What good is all that without the data to fuel the business? Depending on the amount of data, it could take a significant amount of time, even weeks to download depending on your connectivity and other variables. Ensure that your RBS provider has some alternate means to get your data to you based on your Recovery Time Objective (RTO). Better yet, choose a local RBS provider that can manually retrieve your data, deliver it to you and manage the data restoration process while your focus is elsewhere. Every second of not being operational can be detrimental to your business.

Managed Services.

Managed Services

How much does the RBS provider help you with? If you’re technically inclined you may have the capability to properly setup your RBS backup processes so a service that presents a downloadable piece of software and a help file may be all you need. However, just because you are successful with getting data to backup doesn’t mean you’re backing up all the right data you will need to recover. In most circumstances you will require more than “working files”. I recommend at least involving your trusted IT Specialist and key personnel just to make sure you’ve got everything covered.

On the flipside there are some RBS providers who provide complete managed services. This usually includes some form of risk assessment and needs analysis used to identify all requirements. To top things off they typically setup the service and ensure things are running smoothly. These are usually local services that physically meet with clients although; it’s not unheard of for this to be performed remotely. The key point of all of this is if you don’t know what you’re doing then find a professional that does. If you miss one critical component you may compromise your recovery and fall victim to what you were trying to avoid in the first place.

Choose a service that meets your needs and habits. Some RBS services are automated whereas others require manual intervention to start. I usually recommend an automated process as we all forget things or adjust our priorities should things pop up. Additionally, with some services you are required to verify or monitor your own backups. Did it work? Are the files there? It’s all up to you to find out. On the other hand, some RBS providers monitor scheduled backups for you to make sure they are successful. You may receive daily email notices to keep you informed. These types of providers will intervene immediately if something goes wrong to make sure you are protected. It’s all up to you with how much involvement or lack thereof you want with these processes. Ensure that you choose a supplier that fits your needs as the service is less effective if it doesn’t. Of course, with most business services, the less involvement you have the costlier the service. That is why there is such a price range in the market. Although not true in all circumstances, the cheaper it is the less it does for you. There are many variations available so find one that fits you. Many even offer trials so you can test them out before you hang up your hat.

Support.

Support

Few consider support services until they are needed which can lead to frustrating experiences, especially when your business is at risk. Make sure you are aware of all the means you have to communicate with your provider and test them before committing to their service. We can plan as much as we want but that Murphy guy will always stick his part into the equation. You have to be ready to deal with anything and having support available is critical. Be concerned about providers that only provide e-mail support with no listed means to call them directly. If they do list numbers then try them to see if you can actually get to their support. Some outsource to foreign countries. Protect yourself and ensure you have partnered with an organization that will be there when you need them. Consider time zone differences if support isn’t provided 24/7. Even if it is what are the regular hours of operation and how easy is it to get through in the off hours? How many staff will be available? These are all variables that could mean the difference between your business overcoming and being consumed by a business halting scenario.

Conclusion

My aim with this article was to answer many questions that have been asked over the last few months. I hope I succeeded with that in addition to providing a source or reference that may be used by those who are contemplating RBS technologies as part of their continuity processes. If you have any comments or questions feel to contact me.

S

P.S. Happy holidays to everyone if I am not able to get another post out until after Christmas.

Encryption Key

Today was one of those days.

First thing in the morning I had the unpleasant experience of providing support to a client who had just lost all of their email and contacts in Microsoft Outlook. The unpleasantness mentioned previously wasn’t due to trying to help this poor guy out; it was due to the end result. Let’s call him Gentleman X.

I’m not sure if you have ever had to communicate with a person who has lost something as critical as all of their business email and contacts but it can be quite emotional. Gentleman X was no different and ranged from being extremely irate and yelling to moments where he sounded like he was holding back tears while on the phone.

Freakout

I tried to calm Gentleman X down and asked him for his account information. In looking it up through our AutoBackup server admin I was able to see his backups were up to date with his last one completing successfully at 11pm the previous night. I felt a sense of relief as I begun to walk him through the process of restoring his files.

Everything was going like clockwork until we hit the point where Gentleman X needed to enter his encryption key. “What encryption key?” he said. Oh ohhh I thought. “The encryption key you chose when you changed your encryption key settings to Use a specific customer encryption key instead of Use a randomly generated encryption key setting that was selected when we installed your software for you” I said.

A few tech details to explain, we install our software with the default of using a randomly generated key for client backups with detailed instructions regarding the other encryption options. A randomly generated key is by session and the client doesn’t require retaining it. If they choose to change their settings to using a specific customer encryption key then they are responsible to safeguard the key. Without it their files cannot be restored.

“I didn’t change those settings” Gentleman X said, “my IT guy did. He was adding more directories to the backup profile and felt that it would be in our best interest and more secure for us to do it.”

I told him that he was right and that it was the most secure method but the client was responsible to maintain their own key with that setting and that with it, the data could be restored. Gentleman X replied that his IT consultant never gave him a copy of it and that he would contact him right away to get it. That was at 9am this morning. A courtesy call at the end of the day revealed that he wasn’t any further ahead. The IT consultant couldn’t remember off the top of his head what the key was and was trying to track it down. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes. I certainly hope that when I call tomorrow I’ll be met with good news and all will be fine.

Rocket Scientist

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what I am going to say next. If you subscribe to any form of backup process that requires you to select and retain an encryption key to restore your data, then ensure that you do so. This is your data people, your livelihood, your business, your future. Take an active interest in protecting it and understand the full process of what needs to be done to restore what you may lose. If you’re too busy, make sure you partner with someone you can count on and trust. Safeguard your encryption keys in multiple secure locations accessible by more than one trustworthy source.

Your business could depend on it!

S

Considerations in Common Backup Processes

There are many ways one can backup data and they all have positives and negatives. If you are using any of them then I applaud you as you are doing more than the majority of people and businesses out there are doing. So that’s the first step. Do something. The next thing you should become aware of are the risks associated with using your chosen process. If you understand the risks at least you know what your up against and where that process could fail. I never rely on one form of backup so I tend to recommend a combination of processes when consulting with my clients. Do yourself a favor and consider that. I’m sure you have heard that you should always have a "Plan B" with anything. Backup is no different.

Let’s jump back to understanding the risks as that is what I wanted to post about. I wrote an article about a year ago that details just that from a non-technical perspective. I’ve added it below so you can continue reading on.

Lost Data Headache

Few of us question the need for backing up our data. It is well known that 43% of all businesses who experience significant data loss never re-open¹ and of those that do, only 51% survive an additional 2 years². Surprisingly, less than 1% of all SMEs have backup processes effective enough to recover or limit their liability and risk from business halting events³. Conflictingly, 91% of them feel that they do have processes effective enough to protect them⁴. How come there is such a discrepancy between those two percentages? This article will introduce some reasons why there may be a false sense of security within our business community.

For sake of simplicity, specific hardware and software will not be referenced. Let’s start by separating backup strategies in terms of internal and external. Internal refers to what you do within the confines of your establishment whereas external refers to the opposite.

Internal Strategies

There are many ways of internally protecting your data. They all revolve around duplicating it from a source to some form of storage medium or device. The most common forms include the use of Optical Discs (CD/DVD), Magnetic Tapes and Hard Disks.

Optical Discs

Optical Disc

Optical discs are relatively cheap and have the advantage of offering direct restoration to any computer equipped with a compatible reader. On the flip side, this media offers limited capacities, which make them impractical for use with large amounts of data. This could influence backup consistency due to increased labour as it cannot be done unattended which, supports the “putting it off until tomorrow” behavior. Additionally, this media is prone to environmental influences such as heat and physical damage, which present a storage issue. Some discs have been known to degrade and lose data within a moderately short period of time.

Magnetic Tape

Magnetic Tape

Magnetic tape is the most widely used backup media but, the least dependable. They offer poor access times and are extremely prone to breakage, dust, heat, humidity, electromagnetic fields, and wear due to use. How they are stored and how often they are used must be considered so they remain effective. A similarity with old 3.5” floppy discs comes to mind. If you recall their continuing to work until one day they were inaccessible. Magnetic tape behaves very much the same way. Furthermore, tape backups are not inter-compatible with all tape readers, even from the same manufacturer. Ensure you have a spare, tested, identical reader should the original be involved in the event causing the loss.

Hard Disks

Hard Drive

Reasonable prices and extended capacities have increased the popularity of hard disk storage. However, recent studies report an annualized failure rate of up to 8.6%⁵ and up to 15 times more than what vendor’s claim⁶. Consider that hard disks today store thousands of times more data than in the past and on smaller surfaces. It makes sense that their failure rate would follow suit.

Solid State Storage

Flash Drive

Known as USB, flash or jump drives, these devices have relatively low capacities but offer excellent portability and ease of use. However, their small size makes them prone to loss or theft which can expose the business to increased liability.

External Strategies

It doesn’t matter how good your internal strategy is if backups are only kept onsite. I must stress this. You are accepting incredible risk by doing so. What use are backups that are destroyed in the same event that consumed the originals? Just look in any media source for evidence of these disasters, they happen more than you think. Protect yourself and insure your backups are always offsite!

The most important aspect of all external strategies is encryption. The loss or theft of any corporate data can bring your business to its knees. Proper encryption can make a loss a non-event! Non-compliance with privacy legislation such as PIPEDA can also lead to severe penalties. Consider the consequences of a public loss of data. Damages could include negative publicity and the loss of confidence with shareholder/clients to name a few. Identity theft and privacy are huge public concerns so encrypt to eliminate exposure!

Always store your data in an environment specifically designed to protect and support the longevity of electronic data, media and devices. As previously described, all storage media have their own inherent weaknesses that need consideration when used in any backup strategy. If you don’t, your data may be unrecoverable when you need it.

Remote Backup Services

Remote Backup

Remote backup is becoming increasingly popular due to automation, extreme flexibility and a set it and forget it ease of use. However, one should be concerned with if and how the data is encrypted in addition to how and where it is stored. The provider must not have access to the encryption key. Additionally, most remote backup services are impractical for large backups due to speed limitations by bandwidth for backup and even more critical, for restoration. Relying on a physical delivery component can make this problem worse. Use a service that can guarantee data delivery when you need it.

Conclusion

Always keep in mind that no strategy is complete without test restoring your data. This should be done routinely as it is one of the biggest mistakes a business can make. You may think you have a bulletproof plan only to find it’s ineffective with meeting your needs at a critical time. Test, test and re-test, your business could depend on it!

Remember, no backup process is 100% effective. Ensure that you consider the risks you currently face and improve processes to limit your liability. Mixtures of internal and external strategies are required to do so. Employing this philosophy will put your business in the top less than 1% that have backup processes effective enough to recover or limit their liability and risk from business halting events.

Canada and USA Flags

PIPEDA

USA Patriot Act

Word of Caution.

Be careful with whom you choose to partner with as the wrong choice could cause serious issues for your business should it become known that you are storing Canadian data on servers in the USA. Between you and me, AutoBackup services the data storage of many American and International businesses. Seriously think about that for a bit. I wonder why they would choose to store data up here. Perhaps they are willing to pay the extra quid because they understand the risks involved with storing it in the USA. You should consider the risks as well.

S

Now.. here we are.. you’ve read the article (hopefully). Are you going to be one of those people that call me wanting my help after they have lost all of their data due to a business halting event or scenario? I hope not.

You may think that I’m throwing this out there to use a little fear tactics so that you use my service. I’m not. You don’t have to use my service at all. There are plenty of ways for you to backup your data properly. They all have risks involved with them. For instance, if you use tape they are prone to be influenced and damaged by dust, heat, humidity and electromagnetic fields etc., but if you transport and store them in a proper environment you mitigate the amount of risk you are exposed too. I have another article about all of that stuff I’ll post in the future. So, STOP making excuses and really take a look at what you’re doing with your data. Honestly, your business could depend on it. If you choose to just pass this post by, ignore it and something happens…

Sorry 'Bout Ya Bad Luck

If you hadn’t guessed this happened today to a business colleague so it’s been on my mind. If you have questions, want more direction, need a little help don’t hesitate to post a comment and I’ll point you in the right direction.

S

First of all, I want to clear something up about encryption. Quite simply, it is just a deterrent. It’s not some unbreakable thing, all encryption can be cracked. Now, it may take the complete processing power of the world for a thousand years to do so but nothing is uncrackable. Especially since there are technological advancements made every day that make things faster. The way you need to think when using encryption is that your making it so that those who may try to decrypt your data need to spend more money and time to do so than the value of the data itself. That’s should they ever gain access to it which they should never do. Clear as mud?

Now, What Is Encryption?

A simple definition would be to alter using a secret code so as to be unintelligible to unauthorized parties. Encryption works by replacing one letter or numerical character with another character or symbol to create an encoded message. See example below.

Above is a very basic example. I’m hoping that the image speaks for itself. Let’s just look at the first and last rows of the top chart. The middle is just a numerical value for the characters. The top row is the 26 letters of the alphabet and the last row is their encrypted equivalent. Below the chart is some sample text – ENCRYPTION IS FUN. All one has to do to encrypt the ENCRYPTION IS FUN text is to look up each letter and utilize the symbol or character representing it in the chart. Capital E is the Percent Sign (%), Capital N is the Forward Slash (/) and so on. The complete encrypted message is shown below the ENCRYPTION IS FUN text. If you and a friend had that chart and you just sent the encrypted text to them, your friend would be able to decrypt it by looking up each symbol or character to find out which letter of the alphabet you are referring to. Same as what you did, but in reverse. And that’s it. This is a very simple character replacement form of encryption; very similar to how Julius Caesar sent messages to his generals as he didn’t trust his messengers back in the Roman days. Make sense?

And that’s basically it in a nutshell. Today’s encryption algorithms use crazy mathematical equations instead of a simple character replacement schemes. Way out of my level of understanding. We don’t need to understand it to apply it though. Now how do you apply this to your business and securing your offsite records? That depends on your business processes. There are so many options out there (some free) and it’s far beyond the scope of this post to get into them. I would speak with your IT contact and ask them what they think. There are also professionals like myself out there who specialize in electronic security and the application of it.

Hopefully this post gave you a little bit of a better understanding of encryption and I was able to point you in the right direction with incorporating it into your corporate processes. It will certainly limit your risk and exposure when rotating your data offsite.

S

In Canada we have something called PIPEDA which is the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. There is similar legislation in the United States that enforce the protection of private and personal information. Simply put, you face being fined; losing your licenses, being exposed through the media or being jailed should you be responsible for a breach. You really need to consider your offsite storage process. That being who will be responsible for your data, how much exposure does it have and where it is being stored? No matter what, you must always accept the possibility of your data being lost or stolen. Don’t think it doesn’t happen because it does, even with companies that are being paid to manually secure it. Take a look at this list to get a little bit on an idea – Chronology of Data Breaches. Once you’re blown away there, take a stroll over to this site to get an even bigger, up to date picture OSF DataLossDB. Scary stuff…

I hear all the time from clients that have a member of their staff perform a backup at day end, dump it to a flash or removable drive, throw it in their purse or pocket and strut out into the world… we don’t keep private or personal information, no credit cards.. nothing like that so we don’t have to worry about it being lost or stolen. Well, that’s your perspective. Ask your clients how they would feel if they found out that you lost data that included information about them public or private. Yes public information is out there that someone can compile but why make it easier for them. Not to mention all the fears out there with identity theft. Your client wouldn’t care what kind of information it is. You’ll lose them. They will see you as irresponsible and will take their business somewhere else.

You can always just pretend it never happened and pray your clients never find out. Then there is the question of your integrity and if it does get exposed you just created an even worse public relations nightmare for yourself. I bet enough to destroy your business. And get this, if you do lose your clients information you have a legal obligation to inform them immediately. If you don’t you may as well go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect your 200 bones… if they find out that is… are you a betting type of person??

So.. now that I’ve scared the heck out of you, you’re probably asking yourself what the heck do you do now???

The answer my friends is ENCRYPTION… encryption is the key… and that, is a topic for another post…

S

Backup is what I do for a living so it likely doesn’t surprise you that today I was thinking about how to backup my blog, twitter account.. whatever I can regarding my entrance into social media. If you’re anything like me, you can take a significant amount of time putting things together just the way you want them. I think I would drop kick the Christmas turkey I just bought out the door if I lost it all so… off I go on a mission to find the answers. I’ll be damned if I’m going to break my foot on a frozen meleagris.

And here is what I came up with… for those of you who follow me on Twitter I sent out a tweet earlier today regarding options at your disposal. I’ll throw that one out there again for those following my WP blog only – Ways to Backup Your Twitter Account – Now, I haven’t tried any of these yet but certainly will be. If you have had experiences with any of them comment and let me know. I will certainly be sharing my results.

For WP users I did a fair amount of searching around. You are in luck if you host your own copy of the WP software as there are a lot of plugins available to automate the process. Simply go to Google and do a search for “WordPress Backup Plugins”. For those like me who are using WP.com for the moment there is nothing out there that I could find to automate the process so you will have to settle for doing it manually through the Export feature in the tools menu of the WP interface. Here is an article from WP Support that will give you the rundown – Tools – Export – . Just remember to do it every time you make a post and you are all set. It doesn’t backup your custom CSS if you subscribe to that feature so make sure you maintain a copy of that and any custom images you may have that are significant to your blog layout (and posts).

Blogger

Last but not least for this post is Blogger. For those of you who use this particular service, I dug up the following resources that you can take advantage of. How To Backup Blogger Blog and How to Back Up Your Blogger Blog. As with the WordPress options, I have not tried any of them yet. I will certainly be doing so soon and will share my results with you in a future blog. If you try them don’t hesitate to comment and let me know how it went.

S